Do I wake or sleep?

Hamas has won in the Palestinian elections, which is bad news for the peace process in Israel. Hamas has declared in no uncertain terms that they hate Israel, and will not recognize it, and they have claimed responsibility for many suicide bombings during the intifadah. I had such hope after Arafat died--I truly believed the Palestinian people wanted peace and Abbas could make it happen.

My friend djeber says it nicely:

Here are some thoughts: the Palestinians were given a choice, and now they've shown the world what they stand for. I don't care how corrupt Fatah was or how many schools Hamas built. None of that changes the fact that the Palestians have put into power a fundamentalist, terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel. As such, I now just hope that they give Israel an excuse to wipe them off the planet. And if some civilians get caught in the crossfire, well, they put Hamas in power, so now they can reap the consequences. I won't lose any sleep over it.

Well, at least we (what is, Israel) know what we're dealing with--the gloves are off and Israel can continue to build that wall. Jesus. Yay for democracy?

I'm thinking about what happened in Fallujah on Wednesday. I just cannot wrap my head around that kind of insane savagery. Mike and I were talking about this last night--what kind of...creature...do you have to be to do that to another human being? How can you surrender your humanity like that? I don't understand it at all. These creatures look human, they have human faces and talk and move like humans, but it's as though there's human skin stretched over an abyss of evil, the heart of darkness. "Under the tiger-mask, a man, yes. But under the man-skin--a beast."

There are so many awful things about this--these men, the victims, were not only civilians, but they were providing for food delivery, which means they may have even been trying to help the Iraqis. And reports say that there were young boys there, helping the savages and cheering them on. Children. Cheering them on. Bringing them gasoline. I don't...I don't even know how to respond.

A friend of mine online posted on a message board:

You know, I'm watching Nightline and it's showing images of the carnage in Fallujah today, and I'm thinking, okay, do these people know who they are playing with? Seriously? We could FUCK THAT ENTIRE COUNTRY UP. And right now I'm thinking, hey, what the hell? Who gives a shit, drop about a million bombs.

I don't think they know what game they're playing. If they think America is a big beast now, they have NO idea what could happen if we got REALLY pissed off.

And then in another post:

Thank God this county is slow to anger. Really. We could burn the place down and salt the earth, that's what I'm saying. And I don't know if those "insurgents"/"terrorists"/"residents" of Fallujah really fathom that. The only thing that could stop us from doing that...is us.

Jesus. Jesusjesusjesus. God give us strength not to give in to that, because that would make us no better than the savages who did this. God give us strength to do what needs to be done, to finish the job we started. And please keep my brother safe.

My knee looks bad--it's considerably swollen. I have no idea what happened but I'm putting ice on it for awhile. Julie let me go early from rehearsal, as I was gimping around the studio feeling like Tiny Tim, so I can kick back and rest for a little while.

They caught Saddam Hussein! I wanted to post this earlier today (news junkie that I am, I'd turned on CNN when I first got up) but again, my internet access didn't work. But only this morning--I was able to get on just now. Weird.

Duncan's party was lots of fun. I really wish I'd gotten there earlier--I'd intended to leave my apartment by 9:00 at the latest but Susan called and delayed me for a bit. I got there around 11:00 and then left around 2:00 which wasn't enough fun. But Susan was going back on the PATH and I wanted to go with her.

God, my knee is hurting.

I voted today. They don't expect a big turnout today--the election is for a few council members and some ballot initiatives. I was thinking of Stuart, and Iraq, and my usual frustration with those who don't exercise their right to vote. As fucked up as the situation is over there, we're trying to give them that right. People die all over the world for this right--Iraqis were gassed and tortured in unbelievable ways for this basic right to self-determination, and we take it so casually. We're such complacent, jaded, cynical children.

Despicable.

Way to murder a baby there, Anonymous Oh-So-Brave Palestinian. Way to target not only civilians, but civilians celebrating one of their most solemn holidays. Have fun in Hell. Hope you brought your flipflops.

I read the following in Jason's journal:

"He also had some interesting views of women, which are probably predominant in his culture, despite the fact that he's from the 'progressive' Middle Eastern countries. (He's from Jordan, and currently works, as mentioned, in Qatar.) He believes that women should not be in IT, because they don't work as hard as men, and, in fact, mentioned that women are purposely paid less than men. His wife is working towards her masters degree and PhD. Progressive, you say? Well, she's doing that because he wants her to work in education, which he sees more as women's work. Or maybe that's just what his wife lets him believe..."

I can't possibly state strongly enough how much that sort of attitude upsets me. Why? Why? Why is it still so acceptable to bash women? Why come here to a country where you know we as a culture don't share those views and loudly announce your prejudices? (Especially when I'm sure this guy would be the first to scream if he felt discriminated against in this country. Hey, maybe I should ask the guy if he knows any terrorists.) Why don't people object to this? Why is sexism and misogyny still--still--STILL acceptable where racism and religious bigotry are not? Why do people just shrug at this? Why aren't we denouncing out loud and often those countries where "honor" killings are still practiced?

Yesterday as Tim and I were driving to Duncan's show, the radio was on and they were reading the news. They were talking about the police presence at the Puerto Rican parade, saying that 3 years ago, "several women complained that they'd been harassed by parade-goers." Don't you love how they leave out the whole fact of trial and conviction? How they make it sound like maybe it didn't happen--it was just these women's complaints that led to the police presence rather than an actual crime for which these thugs had been convicted. Newsflash: If there was a trial and conviction, that means it happened. That's right up there with Larry King interviewing Samantha Geimar (raped by Roman Polanski at the age of 13) and asking her "So what did you claim he did to you?" Jesus! The man was convicted! It happened! It actually happened, I can't believe he used language like "claim." I was so outraged, I whipped off an email to CNN. No other crime is treated like this. When a mugging or a burglary occurs, the victim is taken seriously. The investigators go by empirical evidence, the newspapers are properly appalled, the defense attorney doesn't put the victim on trial. But when a women is attacked, it's open season--watch some of the archival news about the Central Park jogger. It'll make your stomach turn. Yeah, I guess it's acceptable--in Stupid Logic Land--in an effort to deflect attention from the young men who are accused, to call the almost-dead victim a whore. Because her sexual history has everything to do with whether or not the young men did it. Brilliant reasoning there. But then they did the same thing to poor Jennifer Levin (tiny woman murdered by 6'2" Robert Chambers in Central Park--the piece of filth claimed he killed her in self-defense. Please)--so why should I be surprised?

The world sucks. People suck. I actually had a pretty good weekend but this just depressed me.

Five suicide bombings in 48 hours.

This, so close to another possible peace agreement, proves more than anything how Palestinian militants--who, let's not forget enjoy the support of 60-70% of the "civilian" population so they are fairly representative--don't. Want. Peace. They don't want it. They don't want to coexist with Israel. They want to wipe it out.

And not just in the Middle East but everywhere. (Remember last July 4, with the guy who had to come over to America specifically to kill Jews over here? Nice. So it really has nothing to do with "Palestine"--it's just about hating Jews. Savage.) It doesn't matter that the Palestinians have a higher standard of living in Israel than almost anywhere else (certainly better than in Jordan). It doesn't matter that for all their bellicose rhetoric, the other ostensibly pro-Palestinian Arab countries have done nothing--nothing--to actually help the Palestinians in any meaningful way (they don't take them in, they don't try to moderate the two sides)--they do nothing but urge on the Palestinians in their terrorism. All that matters is their stupid, pathetic pride which is based on nothing in the last millennium and a half; their terrible, sad pride that's so mightily offended because Israel has handily beaten them in every war and gained ground; Israel has a higher standard of living; Israel has a much higher literacy rate. The only thing the Palestinians are good at is murdering civilians.

Just shaking my head over here. They're savages. The only way they can prove otherwise is to start negotiating in earnest and that means rooting out and destroying the militants. Which they won't do. Because they don't want peace.